Laying off a bit

Getting laid off from a job is one of the most interesting things I have ever done. There is such a mixture of emotions (sadness, anxiety, happiness, optimism and a whole lot of others). It's been almost 3 weeks since I lost my job. Each day is it's own choose-your-adventure for me. For instance, the first few days, my adventure was sitting around the house getting projects done. I figured if I kept busy, it would feel like a vacation instead of a job separation.
Last week the adventure was that of a world conqueror. I can literally do anything I want to do! What would I do to fill my job bucket??? I could be a business consultant, coffee shop barista, travel writer, chef, stay at home dad, painter, poet, president of a non profit, limitless possibilities. Except that there were a lot of limits on those possibilities (time, talent and trust tend to curve some of those aspirations).
Then reality sunk in last week. I should probably tap into my network and start searching for a job. And as my man J-Zone always said "A job ain't nothing but work". So my goal is to find something that isn't  exactly work, but more of passionate tasks that I do in which I'm compensated for. I don't know what that means right here and now, but I'll figure it out. And when I do, I'll be a happy camper. But one thing is for certain, I won't dwell on why my company decided to divorce me and see other people. Our lives moved in different directions and I need to be grateful for that change.

Sidenotes:
1. I'm rediscovering my love for good music during this time. My ipod has been re energized with jams from 1995-2003. Such an interesting time period for tunes.
2. I've found that I'm far more handy than originally thought. I've managed to completely overhaul my deck as well as some other house projects I'd always assumed I'd have to contract out.
3. There is almost nothing a little coffee, wine, optimism and nice smile can't fix.

The Bank

I was incredibly sad to hear the news the other day that Ernie Banks passed away. Growing up a Cubs fan my entire life, he was an icon. I never got to see him actually play, but how he was revered by Cubbies fans, spoke volumes. I always viewed him as the benchmark of what a HOF player should be.

Totally Tubular

It's crazy that my blogs used to be about graffiti, abandoned buildings, train yards, my crazy friends and random late night adventures. Then in turned into some sort of travel/food thing, then there was a weird stage where I just posted random nonsense, but now it's morphed into some rant about parenting, I suppose that's the circle of life.

Welp, they boy has had 3 ear infections in the past 2 months. He gets them, antibiotics kick it, then a week later it's back. So we saw the ENT and they recommended ear tubes. The thought is that these will help his little ears drain better over the next few years and it's a super mild surgery.

So needless to say, I've been on my healing kick of late. I stumbled upon a blog about putting some eucalyptus oil in a cool mist humidifier to help the kid with a cough. He's napping now, so we'll see what success that has.

It's crazy how fixated kids get on stuff. I would say that 80% of what my kid talks about is cars. Cars this, cars that, big cars, blue cars, cars that go night night, buses and of course trucks. The only way he gets out of the crib in the morning is if I ask if he wants to go to the window to see the cars drive by. I don't think I was ever that obsessed about anything when I was 2, but obviously far too young for me to remember.

Took a year off

Apparently, I'm on the once-a-year posting kind of thing. Mainly, it's because life got in the way of actually ranting about life.

New Years Resolution - get back on the grind.

Deuces.

-JB

No Sleep Till Brooklyn aka Parenting Ain't Easy

Sometimes words cannot express experiences or emotions. I would rather use a lot of 4 letter words to describe the current state of the state. 

To put it bluntly, teething babies are the worst creations on this planet. Actually, scratch that. Teething babies that are SICK are the worst creation on this planet. Our guy turned one last weekend and it's been an uphill battle since. It started out as a bit of the stomach flu one morning. No big deal. He got over it rather quickly. Then he got Croup at the same time some more teeth decided to come in. Holy F*&$in S*@t. It's been a steady stream of tears, headbutting, fighting to eat, not sleeping (that not sleeping thing is heavily favored towards him), yelling, crying, whimpering, and the list goes on.

I got a text from a friend the other night at about 3am. I was up with the kid walking him around the living room trying to console him. The text read "We're just getting home. Half of the club came with us. My house is pretty much a bomb shelter right now". I felt like reaching through that screen and pulling out his teeth. 

Now parenting isn't all bad. I complain far more than I praise. It's a work in progress for me. I feel like I fail more times than not. This is all brand new to me. From the pregnant wife, to the birth, to the first 6 months where I felt like I was going slightly insane (no, really), to a year into it and still finding out that my kid is ever-evolving faster than I can keep up. 

It takes a village. Oddly, it comes from some pretty funny online communities for chuckleheads like me that are going through this at the same time (i.e. when's the last time you slept in past 7?). We're a support group of sorts. And it helps to have a family that is a phone call away. I can always count on my mom to give me some outdated advice that I doubt I will actually apply to my child. But I appreciate the hell out of the advice and reassurance anyway. 

So until next time. 

okbai

And this little piggy...

The lamest excuse for not blogging a lot? I broke a toe. Like, REALLY broke a toe. Steve Dahl style broke a toe. 
Secondly (and unrelated to the above topic), I am a horrible crock pot cook. You would think that would be impossible, but it's true. I tried making some korean ribs in there, and they turned out dry and nasty. I'm not going to full on give up, but I might have to go back to my sauté pan and cast iron skillet for a while. 

Happy October. 

Deuces. 

Labor Pains

Dear Summer, I know you gone miss me. For we've been together like Nike airs and crisp T's. 

I love that Jay Z song (Dear Summer for those who don't know). It always seems very fitting to me around Labor Day. The Minnesota State Fair is over, we're rolling into September and football is starting. For all intents and purposes, Summer is behind us. 
Fall is a great season in Minnesota, but it reminds me of a Sunday. The coolness of Saturday has already passed, and while technically it's still a weekend, you know what tomorrow brings. And tomorrow is Winter. I hate winter with a passion. But that's a topic for a different day.

I'm completely wasting my life away playing Skyrim. I picked it up randomly this past week and have probably put 10 hours into it already. I love it. The one thing that takes away from the awesomeness is that it randomly glitches on me. But other than that, it's AM-azing. 

I'm a die hard Twins fan. But you already knew that. But it's incredibly difficult to watch this team play this year. Most of the roster is a bunch of nobody's that should probably be in AAA. One of my favorite Major League lines is "who the fuck are these guys"? I sometimes feel like that when I'm watching the Twinkies. Chris Callabelo? Oswaldo Arcia? One day they might make an impact, but for the time being, their just bodies filling jerseys. My seamhead friends are more upset than I am that we're rebuilding for 2016 when Sano and Buxton get up here. But as a lifelong Cubs fan (yes, you can technically be both) I'm used to losing seasons. But we still love our team and we come out to fill the ballpark. Winning isn't EVERYTHING....right? 

Also, the next idiot who tries to compare Breaking Bad to The Wire is getting punched in the neck.